Alumni Story

Dr. Sukhdeep Kaur, Trieste 2024

Scientist at the DST-Centre for Policy Research, Panjab University, India

Trieste Summer School 2024

August 2024 will be a memorable month for me from now on!

This month, I got the opportunity to attend CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science at Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy. I felt profoundly grateful for this incredible journey. It was a transformative experience for me. I attended both the ‘CODATA-RDA School for Research Data Science’ and ‘CODATA-RDA Advanced Workshops for Research Data Science’ from 12th August to 31st August 2024. These three weeks were invaluable in enhancing my knowledge in Research Data Management (RDM). 

Before attending this school, I was a physicist with an interdisciplinary knowledge of Statistics; Cryosphere; Computer languages such as Matlab, Python, etc.; Geophysical Instrumentation, and data Analytic tools with a specialization in snow physics. I was always passionate about data wrangling, learning new code mechanisms, and handling big data with new techniques. I was keen to seek information about data curation and its preservation. I often asked myself; How can I cater for projects at an individual level efficiently, by giving due emphasis on data integrity and reproducibility? How can I wear the boots of a good data scientist? How can I motivate myself to share the data across research communities and advocate for open science? With these thoughts, I applied for the CODATA-RDA School for Research Data Science and Advanced Workshops for Research Data Science.

Indeed, the CODATA- RDA School has fulfilled my desire to become a good data scientist by letting me become a part of a creative learning environment that was intellectually stimulating and supportive. I learned a great deal about handling data repositories, and developing research data management plans, and practices to promote open science. Each day was an opportunity to learn something new, and sometimes learn different aspects of what I already knew. Each day was a competitive day also with a fully engaged range of activities, from lectures to team activities, from group discussions to hands-on projects. Winning candy, chocolate or little goody prizes gave an added charisma! 

I am thankful to the School and the team for teaching me about responsible data conduct, sharpening my practices of integrity and motivating me to become an advocate for open science.

The expert lectures by distinguished instructors were particularly enthralling. The whole teaching team, instructors and helpers deserve applause for structuring a full-fledged support system that reflects diversity and provides easily accessible teaching materials. The whole team was always up for discussion with us and to clarify doubts no matter whether we were in class or outside for a coffee. I am thankful to the School and the team for teaching me about responsible data conduct, sharpening my practices of integrity and motivating me to become an advocate for open science. 

The school provided a diverse learning environment that greatly enhanced my experience with data visualization, Data silos, and DMPs. I was fascinated by the usability of ML, neural networks, and Deep Learning for social uses. But what most fascinated me was learning Kafka in the Advanced Class. I will definitely be using this in my future projects!

Not only was the learning from the school enriching, but it opened a great deal of opportunities for me in terms of collaborations and personal growth. All credit goes to the distinguished instructors for laying the foundation for concepts I had not encountered before. I am also thankful to my teammates for building up a creative and approachable environment to explore solutions to problems from new perspectives; they have greatly helped me to think about new horizons and gave me a chance to unwind and bond outside of the classroom. 

My experience at the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science is beyond words. It gave me a chance to learn new avenues, new friendships across borders, and skill sets for future-ready innovation ecosystems.

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